Bournemouth beat Palace with late penalty after 'stupidity from Sakho'

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said referee Mike Dean was “quite entitled” to give the 87th-minute penalty that saw his side lose to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

With the scores level, Bournemouth were gifted the spot-kick when Palace defender Mamadou Sakho swung a forearm into the face of Jefferson Lerma at a free-kick.

Junior Stanislas stepped up to score the spot-kick which gave Bournemouth a fourth Premier League win from seven games this season.

Hodgson said: “Sakho has no intention to elbow the player or use his elbow to stop the player getting to the ball, because he wouldn’t have got to the ball, but I can’t deny when you see it on the TV that Mamadou does catch the player and so the referee’s quite entitled to give the penalty.

Bournemouth had been in front after just five minutes when David Brooks curled in off the crossbar for his first Premier League goal.

But after half-time Palace improved, and the visitors equalised in the 55th minute when Dutch full-back Patrick van Aanholt beat Asmir Begovic at the near post with a powerful strike into the top corner.

The hosts could have won the game even before the penalty however, with Callum Wilson and Dan Gosling both having good efforts saved by Wayne Hennessey.

The game ended in bad-tempered fashion as a number of players from both teams were involved in a scuffle after Lerma and Cheikhou Kouyate squared up.

Bournemouth have secured their best start to a Premier League season and climb to seventh while Palace stay 13th.

Sakho madness costs Palace

Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton described the penalty incident as “stupidity from Sakho”.

“Palace only have themselves to blame, a moment of madness from Sakho let Bournemouth nick it,” added Sutton on BBC Radio 5 live.

Palace were comfortably second-best in the first half but after their goal early in the second they had looked like having the momentum to go on and take three points.

Both sides pushed for a winner in the final half-hour but in the end it was Sakho offence which decided the outcome.

With Sakho marking Lerma at the free-kick, the pair initially tussled and referee Dean had to warn both men.

Then, before the ball was delivered, Lerma backed into the Palace centre-back who twice swung an arm into Lerma’s face.

Dean seemed in little doubt about awarding the penalty and Stanislas, who had only come on as a substitute three minutes earlier, calmly dinked his spot-kick down the middle of the goal to secure victory.

Home comforts for Cherries

Regardless of the manner of the win, Bournemouth could have counted themselves unfortunate had they not come out of the game with three points.

Van Aanholt was standing in an offside position when receiving the ball for his equaliser and Wilfried Zaha also capitalised on a deflection after his misplaced pass in the build-up.

After seeing his side pegged back, Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe responded by removing goalscorer Brooks and switching to a 4-5-1 formation, which helped the hosts cope better with an improved Palace.

Bournemouth, who were beaten 4-0 in their last game at Burnley, are now unbeaten in five Premier League home games, winning four.

They had looked comfortable early on, energetically pressing high and playing sharp passes, and were rewarded through Brooks who became the club’s youngest Premier League goal scorer at 21 years and 84 days.

Over the 90 minutes they created the better chances, with Wilson in particular guilty of wastefulness when his shot was saved by Hennessey when one-on-one.

Man of the match – Nathan Ake

‘We have matchwinners who can turn the game’ – what they said

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe: “First half we looked really good, and at the end of the game. You could say we shaded it and deserved to win – Roy may say differently.

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“We have confidence that we have a goal in us at any time, and we have matchwinners who can turn the game. The togetherness and the spirit in the group is as good as it’s ever been.

On David Brooks, Howe said: “He’s got outstanding technical qualities and I believe he’s a goalscorer in waiting – his finishing’s improving and it was a really good team move.

“The potential of his performances is huge. I felt he deserved to start the season, he was magnificent in the last friendly against Marseille and he’s stayed in on merit. He’s not been overawed by the Premier League.”

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Cherries end Monday night hoodoo – the best stats

Bournemouth have won a Premier League game on a Monday for the first time, at their sixth attempt (D1 L4).

Crystal Palace have won just one of their past six top-flight games (D1 L4), after winning each of the four before that.

Callum Wilson has been directly involved in four goals in his past four home Premier League games for Bournemouth (1 goal, 3 assists), one more than he managed in his previous 12.

Since the start of last season, Crystal Palace’s Patrick van Aanholt has scored six Premier League goals; among defenders, only Marcos Alonso has more (8), with Nacho Monreal also on six.

Wilfried Zaha has had a hand in 10 goals in his past 12 Premier League appearances (8 goals, 2 assists), one more goal involvement than he managed in his 32 games before that (9).

Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas has scored in three consecutive Premier League home games for the first time since November 2009 with West Ham.

What’s next?

Crystal Palace host Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday (15:00 BST kick-off) while Bournemouth travel to Watford the same day.